


Falling to Earth

by cutsycat



Series: Cutsycat's Bangs [9]
Category: NCIS, Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24338011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: John should have known that something bad was going to happen when they explored the new planet. It almost always did, but he never could have expected this. Falling out of the sky with no parachute, things weren't looking good for him. It seemed like he'd been transported to Earth, but was it the Earth he knew and who was that handsome guy trying to save him? Tony DiNozzo had just quit his job at NCIS and the possibilities before him were endless. His pondering of what to do now was interrupted when he spotted a guy falling from the sky and decided to try and catch him/save him from certain death.
Relationships: Anthony DiNozzo/John Sheppard
Series: Cutsycat's Bangs [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1466977
Comments: 20
Kudos: 167
Collections: 2020 NCIS Reverse Bang





	1. Falling Into His Arms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Banbury](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banbury/gifts).



> This is for the reverse bang on [lj](https://ncis-bang.livejournal.com/95911.html).
> 
> The art I picked was:  
> 
> 
> It was done by the amazing [Banbury. ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banbury/pseuds/Banbury/works?fandom_id=951)
> 
> Her art post is [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24340192).
> 
> Big thanks to [jane_x80](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_x80/pseuds/jane_x80) for betaing. I updated it after they betaed, so any mistakes are mine.
> 
> This is my first time really writing John Sheppard, so apologies for any OOCness. Also, apologies for any medical inaccuracies. I'm sure there are some. Hopefully, they're not too jarring.

Tony couldn’t believe he’d finally done it. He’d finally turned in his resignation to NCIS. He’d never thought that it would come to this. He’d handed it directly to Gibbs himself and endured the steely eyed gaze, ignoring the soft, “Don’t do this,” directed his way as he turned around and walked back out.

At one point in time, Gibbs would have followed him to try and persuade him to stay. That time had ended a long time ago, but until recently Tony hadn’t wanted to admit that truth to himself. He hadn’t wanted to acknowledge that the man who had saved him from himself no longer gave a damn about him, but eventually he’d been forced to face the truth and he could no longer delude himself like he had in the past.

Pulling his leather jacket over his shoulders, Tony climbed onto his motorcycle and sped off into the night. Today was the beginning of a new future, hopefully a brighter one. He had no idea where he was going or what awaited him; only that it was time.

Time paused and seemed to fluctuate right before his eyes. He looked up and all he could see was a bright light spreading throughout the sky, revealing the horizon of a world he’d never seen before. When the light vanished, he could make out a dark shape that seemed to be growing bigger as it fell towards him.

Wait. That was a man. There was a man falling from the sky. What the hell? How did quitting his job result in something that only ever seemed to happen in superhero movies and fairytales. Wait did that make him the handsome prince destined to rescue the falling prince? 

Fuck. Tony slammed on his brakes. He didn’t know why, but he was compelled to catch the falling guy. Maybe it was his years in law enforcement. Maybe he really was in a fairytale now. Or maybe it was the pain of losing the girl as a young firefighter. Either way, saving this stranger was something he had to do.

He saw the man jerk. It looked like a desperate attempt to reach for the building next to them, but there was no way his arm was long enough to reach it. Tony looked around for something anything, that the man could use to slow his fall. As much as Tony would like to have superhero powers and be able to save the guy just by catching him, he knew that while he might save the guy falling, the force of the fall from 3 stories or more would definitely kill him.

“To your left,” he shouted, feeling like a fool. The guy probably couldn’t hear him and undoubtedly the yelling would attract the attention of anyone nearby, who would probably think he was crazy.

Still the guy seemed to understand and reached out to the left, just barely catching the ledge of the building across the street. It wasn’t enough to actually stop his fall and his grip slipped and he continued his forward motion towards the ground, but it did slow it a bit. Tony breathed a sigh of relief as the man caught and held onto an awning one level below.

He wasn’t safe by any means as he was still two stories up, but at least the force from falling out of the sky was greatly decreased as he swung back and forth slowly. Tony narrowed his eyes. Was the guy really going to do what he thought he was? 

Looking around for something to help with the other guy’s landing as he jumped from the awning, Tony finally spotted an umbrella lying on the ground by one of the shops nearby. He grabbed it and with his athletic prowess from many years of football threw it unerringly at the man getting ready to jump. 

The man jumped and grabbed the umbrella, falling faster from the force needed to launch himself into the air as he fought with the umbrella. He managed to get it open and immediately slowed down, though it still wasn’t enough to guarantee the guy’s survival. Tony had a sneaking suspicion that the guy had some drop training though as he was definitely using that umbrella to aim right for Tony.

Before Tony could come up with another plan to reduce the guy’s velocity, the man was practically on top of him. He let go of the umbrella and jumped for Tony. Tony blinked for a second or two before his brain engaged and he held out his arms to catch the guy. Tony’s back hit the pavement, absorbing most of the force of the fall. He lay there stunned as he stared up into a pair of sparkling hazel eyes.

“Hi,” John uttered in a moment of stupidity, before his common sense finally reasserted itself and he rolled off of the guy he’d landed on. He slowly moved to an upright position as if confirming that he wasn’t injured with each movement. When the man he’d landed on made no move to get up, John couldn’t help asking, “Are you ok?”

That seemed to bring the other man and his piercing green eyes’ attention back to him. “I’m fine,” Tony muttered as he shifted his eyes back to the sky, still making no move to get up.

John raised an eyebrow at that statement. “Then why are you still on the ground?”

Those green eyes shifted back to him with a deep soul searching gaze. “Just trying to figure out what just happened. It’s not every day someone falls out of the sky and I get the distinct impression it isn’t the first time it’s happened to you.”

John let out an awkward laugh. “It’s just something you get used to in the Air Force, I guess.”

“Air Force? Are you sure this isn’t a fairytale? Guys don’t freefall out of brilliant splashes of light except in books,” Tony couldn’t help asking, still staring at the sky as he internally assessed his injuries. Landing on his back hadn’t done him any favors for sure.

John’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure you’re ok?” He moved closer to Tony, peering at him closely as if looking for injuries. 

Tony waved him away, moving to sit up. He wasn’t fine. Not by most people’s definition, but he’d dealt with worse before. Hiding the wince with long practice, Tony stood smoothly, completely disguising the amount of pain his torso was in.

“Hey!” John protested, stopping Tony’s upward motion as he examined the big goose egg on his head from impacting with the pavement.

“It’s fine.”

“That’s not fine. You could have a concussion.”

“I have had concussions before. I know the signs. I don’t have one.” There was a good chance he had cracked or broken ribs, but he wasn’t about to mention that. “Anyway, why were you falling from the sky?”

“Ehehehe. I’m not really sure myself.” John looked away. This place looked like Earth, but who knew if the Stargate was even a thing here. He certainly wasn’t about to tell a stranger, even a handsome one, his life story when he still didn’t really know where he was.

As if sensing his thoughts, the green eyed man brushed off his pants and gestured to the back of his motorcycle, holding out his spare helmet for John to take. “Come on, you look like you could use a place to think.” 

John accepted the helmet, climbing on behind the green eyed man and hoping he wasn’t making a mistake. The guy seemed nice enough, but unfortunately John’s adventures had taught him more than once that just because they seemed nice didn’t mean they actually were. Still he couldn’t feel anything sinister from the guy, so for now he’d go along with him.

“I’m Tony, by the way. Tony DiNozzo.”

“John Sheppard,” John replied briefly, watching as the green eyes swivelled back to face the front after the introductions. He slid his arm around the waist in front of him to prevent himself from falling as the guy quickly started the motorcycle and sped off into the night.

John found his thoughts drifting to the firm abs under his fingers and immediately told himself off for such thoughts. Tony had just saved him from considerable harm from the drop and quite possibly damaged himself because of it. He shouldn’t be perving on him.

He blinked his eyes as they pulled up to a bar and the guy parked his motorcycle. “This is where you take me to think?” John couldn’t help asking. He didn’t mind a bar, but he’d never really found them conducive to thinking, far too rowdy and noisy for his liking.

Tony flashed him a charming grin and John knew he was in trouble. That smile could tempt millions and he was pretty sure it had from the guy’s self assured stride. 

“Wait until you see the inside. It will surprise you,” Tony smiled softly.

John lifted an eyebrow at that, but he followed Tony inside. He almost stopped in the doorway at what he found. What looked like a bar from the outside was so far from one that it seemed like an illusion.

Instead of a wide open space where people could mingle and dance surrounded by tables and an actual bar setup, the walls were lined with shelves and shelves of books. Bookcases filled the bar making each sitting area seem like a cozy place to think. There was technically a bar with stools, but it was decorated to seem more like a counter in a coffee shop where you could talk with the barista or hostess about whatever was bothering you. At least, that’s what it seemed like to John.

He couldn’t help staring. He would never have expected this from the looks of the outside. He wondered how they avoided drunken encounters from the other bars around, but he wasn’t willing to ask. It also looked like the booths could be customized to allow more privacy or less and there were even some options to change the decor so that people could truly make it their own private sanctuary for however long they were there.

Tony grinned. “Yeah. It’s something else, isn’t it?” He gestured to an open booth, “Come on.”

John broke out of his daze and followed. He was so far out of his element right now that he was falling back on what his tutors had taught him about how to interact with others. It had been a long time since someone had him this far off his game. 

“They do serve alcohol here, but the exterior is just to blend in with the other night life, so that no one thinks anything is off about this place until they’re inside,” Tony explained.

“Is this place run by a wizard?”

Tony laughed. “You believe in wizards?”

“Not really, but I’ve seen enough strange things in my life to know that we can’t explain everything out there.”

“Are you asking if the interior appears different to everyone who comes in?”

John blinked at the guy’s perceptiveness and tilted his head before nodding slowly.

“Nah. The interior looks the same to everyone, but people believe what they want to believe, you know?” 

“Much like they do with you?” John asked.

Tony rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Guilty.”

“So what were you really doing in that street?”

Tony shrugged. “Going for a drive.”

“I find it hard to believe that’s all you were doing,” John murmured.

Tony gestured for the waitress to bring them a couple of drinks before smiling at John again. “I actually found myself at a bit of a crossroads if you can believe that. Well more like standing in front of a large forest trying to figure out which tree looked the best.”

“Lots of possibilities in front of you?”

“Yep, and then a guy fell out of the sky. Seems to me like that must be a sign. Of what?” Tony paused and looked at John, “I’m not entirely sure, yet.”

John gave Tony a once over. “What options are you considering?”

Tony returned the glance, but his look was a lot more thorough. John felt like Tony was cataloguing every dip and curve as he looked him up and down. John couldn’t help his cock taking interest at the obvious perusal, especially not when Tony licked his lips. 

He tried to shake it off. After all, he needed to return to Atlantis as soon as possible. Who knew what would happen in his absence? It rarely was anything good.

“Seems like I have a pretty good option right in front of me.” Tony grinned.

“You don’t even know me,” John protested.

“That can be fixed. Tell me about yourself.”

“Uh, ok. What do you want to know?”

Tony gestured with his hand for him to go on. “Start with something simple, like your job.”

John coughed. “That’s not simple, but let’s go with I’m an Air Force Pilot.”

“Do you like it?”

As John was trying to figure out how to answer, he noticed that Tony’s skin was growing paler. “Are you sure you’re alright? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine,” Tony coughed out as his breathing grew more difficult.

“That is not fine,” John commented as he moved to Tony’s side. “Where can we get medical attention?”

Tony fished his phone out of his pocket and mumbled and coughed as best he could as his difficulty breathing worsened, “Speed dial 2. Name is Ducky. He’ll come to us.” 

John grabbed the phone from Tony and after some prodding around, it had been a while since he used an Earth phone, he finally found the speed dial. As he waited for the call to be picked up, he frowned as Tony’s breathing worsened even more. He wasn’t sure if Tony could even talk at this point in time. “Ducky?”

“You’re not Anthony.”

“Uh, no. He’s next to me. Said to call you, he’s having trouble breathing.”

“Does he have his inhaler around?”

“I have no idea.”

Ducky sighed. “Where are you?”

“A bar?” John replied unhelpfully, not knowing the address or anything.

“Stay there. I’ll be right there,” Ducky ordered, “and find his inhaler if you can. He’s probably having an asthma attack.”

“Got it.” John hung up and looked at Tony trying to figure out where his inhaler might be. 

“Not here,” Tony gasped out.

John gave him a look that asked if he was an idiot. “Stop talking. Focus on breathing.”

He hated feeling useless as he watched the man struggle to breathe. He hadn’t been able to find the inhaler and was pretty sure that Tony was right that it wasn’t here. As Tony hadn’t fallen into unconsciousness, yet, John had no idea what to do. He couldn’t exactly administer CPR to someone still conscious. 

Ducky hadn’t said how long it would take him to get here, but John hoped that the guy was close. For that matter, he hoped that Ducky actually knew where they were and didn’t spend hours looking for them. He wasn’t sure how much longer Tony was actually going to last if he didn’t get professional help. Fortunately, before he could really start freaking out, an older man appeared and rushed over to them looking concerned and murmured, “Anthony? What happened?”

“I don’t really know. We were talking and then he started looking blue and having trouble breathing.”

“Nothing happened to cause this?” Ducky pulled out his stethoscope with a frown. “How’d he get the bump on his head then?”

“Oh. I fell out of the sky and landed on him, but he was fine. We even rode here and everything.”

Ducky immediately started shaking his head. “You fell on him and then he drove you here on his motorcycle?”

“Yes.”

“Let me guess. He told you he was fine?”

“He did. Said he didn’t have a concussion.”

“That part is probably true, but if you landed on him there’s a good chance he has a cracked or broken rib and given his already damaged lungs a possibility of a punctured lung is not something to treat lightly. Anthony, you fool.” Ducky glared at Tony as he struggled to breathe quickly gesturing at John to help him get Anthony up. “Come on, we need to get him to the hospital.”

“What?” John stared in confusion, glancing between the two of them not sure what was going on.

Ducky snapped his fingers. “Are you slow? He probably has a punctured lung from a broken rib he ignored. We might need to get him a new air pathway if he worsens. Fortunately, the hospital isn’t far from here. Come on, now.” Ducky helped Tony stand and led him to his car when the other guy’s response was too slow for his liking.

John followed after feeling even more helpless. He left some cash on the table and hoped that it would cover the drinks. He had no idea if it was even the right currency, but it was the best he could do as he felt responsible for Tony’s injuries and wanted to make sure he was ok. Well, ok, it was really more M4X-888’s fault or as John preferred to think of it, especially now, Max Late. They’d been exploring the new planet and John had gotten separated from the rest of the team and then an unexpected wormhole had appeared right beneath him and he had no chance of avoiding it. He didn’t even get a chance to call out to anyone before he was falling through the sky in a place that looked a lot like Earth.

If Tony hadn’t helped stop his fall, he would have been quite injured and possibly died himself. He was very grateful, but he was also worried about Tony’s injuries now. He knew he shouldn’t be as he would have to return to his own world at some point, but he couldn’t help it. 

He was trying really hard not to think about what might happen if he couldn’t return to his world or dimension or whatever. Was he even in his own dimension? He had no idea at this point in time, but first things first making sure Tony was ok. He slipped into the back with Tony while Ducky drove off exceedingly slowly in John’s opinion, but it wasn’t his place to say anything. 

As soon as they arrived at the hospital, John scooped Tony up and ran inside. Of course, they immediately wanted to know Tony’s insurance and John looked at them blankly. He had no idea about any of that. Hopefully, Ducky knew all that information as Tony wasn’t going to be any help since he had passed out on the way over.


	2. The Healing

John was actually kind of worried that they would be too late. It had only been a few minutes as the bar wasn’t that far from the hospital, but that was a lot of time for someone who wasn’t breathing well. Fortunately, they rushed Tony back as they handed John the paperwork. Ducky grabbed the paperwork from him and quickly filled it out and handed it back to the hospital administration before sitting down next to John as they waited. 

“Is he going to be ok?”

“Only time will tell. A punctured lung is nothing to joke about. You should have called me immediately.”

John held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. “I didn’t know he was badly hurt or I would have.”

Ducky harrumphed. “That’s no excuse. Tony always lies about his medical condition.”

“Hey. I only met the guy today when I fell on him.”

“Why did you do that anyway?” Ducky’s eyes pierced him, demanding the truth.

“That’s a long and complicated story.”

“We have time.”

“Let’s just say I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Shall we?”

Ducky was about to probe more when a loud growl was heard. 

“What happened?” Gibbs snarled. “I just got called about Tony being admitted to this hospital.”

“I’m afraid young Anthony is suffering from a broken rib and punctured lung.”

“Where is he? Who did this to him?”

“Tony is still in surgery. Do calm down, Jethro. He’s going to be fine.”

“He’s not fine. He quit today. Did you know that?”

“It was well past time. He’s been lurking in your shadow long enough as you well know.”

Gibbs glared at Ducky, but Ducky wasn’t affected. “He belongs at NCIS on the MCRT,” Gibbs retorted stubbornly.

“He should have been leading his own team a long time ago and you know it, Jethro,” Ducky pointed out.

Gibbs looked a bit sheepish at that. “Still where is the guy who hurt him?”

“That would be me,” John spoke up, not afraid of Gibbs.

“No one injures my team. Do you know how much trouble you’re in?” Gibbs snarled. “Do you know what I can do to you?”

John chuckled. “Believe me I wasn’t trying to hurt him and I doubt you have the power to do much of anything to me.”

Gibbs glared at John too, but John wasn’t fazed. He’d been glared at by higher ranking officers many times, but he’d never let it get to him. There was a reason he had a disciplinary record with the air force and it wasn’t because he backed down when he was told to.

Ducky shook his head. “Really Jethro. I was just finding out how John came to meet Tony. No need to take his head off. It’s going to be a while before Tony is out of surgery. We’ll have plenty of time to interrogate him if needed.

John didn’t like the sound of this, but he knew it was only fair to let them ask their questions. He was the one who was responsible for Tony’s injuries, after all. Even if Tony had been the one to try and help him of his own freewill first.

Treating it a bit like a dressing down from a commanding officer, John kept his replies short and to the point. He made sure to provide as little detail as possible, letting them fill in the blanks with their assumptions, and purposefully excluding things they didn’t need to know like everything about the Pegasus galaxy while still keeping his tone even. It never helped to get mad back no matter how wrong the officer was. 

Eventually the Gibbs guy had to return to the office and Ducky did too leaving John alone in the hospital room with Tony. The only interruptions were the occasional doctor or nurse making the rounds and checking on Tony. It was pretty easy to tell when one of them was making the rounds as they always knocked before coming in, so John decided to take advantage of the private room and sleeping Tony to try and contact Atlantis or at least one of the team on Max Late without being overheard.

Unfortunately, McKay wasn’t with him to make the science work so that he could actually reach someone. So instead, he was stuck just repeatedly saying hello, anyone there, or other similar stupid things into his communicator and hoping that somebody would eventually hear him and answer back. Maybe when he was sure Tony would live, he could sneak away and see if the Stargate Program existed here. They had protocols for John’s situation and would be his best resource for contacting Atlantis if they existed.

He had no idea how long he sat there doing that. He’d stop whenever someone knocked on the door and would watch Tony for signs of waking periodically. It had been almost a day since John had started this and he’d gotten used to the schedule and relaxed his guard a bit. Despite watching Tony whenever he wasn’t trying to contact Atlantis, he still missed the signs that Tony was waking up until it was too late.

Tony kept his eyes shut as he slowly became aware of his surroundings again. It still kind of hurt to breathe, but he could tell he was on the good drugs. He heard a voice he didn’t recognize trying desperately to get a hold of someone it sounded like. He peeked an eye open, still kind of groggy and spotted John talking into thin air. 

“Who you talking to?” Tony mumbled.

“Ah, nobody.”

“You’re lying.”

“No, I really am talking to nobody, apparently.”

“Ok. Who were you trying to talk to?” Tony glared lightly.

“No one.”

“I heard you. You were trying to get a hold of someone, but I don’t see a phone. So who and how were you trying to talk to them?”

John turned his head, so that the communicator over his ear was obvious. 

“That explains the how, but not the who. What’s going on? You were too unfazed about falling from the sky when we met. I know you’re hiding something.”

John wracked his brain for a believable explanation that wasn’t the truth. Both the Stargate program and Atlantis were so very classified, but as he opened his mouth to try and prevaricate he caught the look on Tony’s face and he just couldn’t. So John slowly started to explain about where he was from in very general terms, trying to gloss over the Stargate program in its entirety and just saying that he’d fallen through a wormhole in another galaxy even though he didn’t fully understand how it had landed him on Earth himself, yet. 

He tried to keep to the unclassified parts of everything, but he was sure some classified material slipped through. Once he made it back to Atlantis, he was going to have to get Tony to sign the nondisclosure agreements. Assuming, he actually made it back to Atlantis. He was sure Rodney had already figured out where John was or would soon and would be on the way to tell him off as soon as he figured out how to get to John. 

Tony was finally released from the hospital, but while he wasn’t in danger of dying anymore, he still had to be careful. The ribs weren’t fully healed by any stretch of the imagination. He really needed someone to look after him. 

John had expected the Gibbs’ guy to fight harder to be the one to watch after Tony, but one glare from Tony was all it took for him to back down and let Tony go home where John could watch after him. John didn’t mind. They’d chatted a lot during Tony’s hospital stay and he was starting to really like the guy. 

He wanted to tell Tony everything even though it was classified and that was a dangerous way to feel. There was no way he was going to tell Tony about the Stargate program while he was still injured, but maybe once he felt better they could go on a field trip and see if it existed in this world. So far everything about Earth seemed to be as he remembered it, so he was hopeful that he really was on the Earth that he knew.

Truthfully, Tony already knew too much, but most of it could be passed off as idle speculation or one of those conspiracy theorists if Tony wasn’t as trustworthy as he thought and tried to go to the media. The more time John spent with Tony the less he was concerned about that happening and the more concerned he became that Rodney would find him and he’d have to go home and leave Tony behind. 

He was pretty sure Tony felt the same way about him. He could see a sad look cross Tony’s face periodically and he’d get especially wistful after looking at John sometimes. Though, the really telling thing was when Gibbs came over to “check” on Tony, but really was just trying to convince Tony to rejoin NCIS and Tony just shot him a glare and muttered, “You know exactly why I’m not coming back and I have even more incentive not to right now.” He’d looked at John in a way that left no doubt what he meant by that in anyone’s mind. 

John had thought that Gibbs was going to take his head off after that, but instead he just growled and left. John hadn’t brought up the unsaid feelings, but they both knew what they were. It had only increased John’s determination to bring Tony with him. 

It was too early for declarations of love and with Tony’s ribs John wasn’t willing to attempt anything overly physical either, but it didn’t matter. Just being together was enough. Though when Tony started getting antsy about being cooped up, John looked into planning a trip to Cheyenne Mountain. He discussed the best way to get to Colorado from New York with Tony and they made tentative plans.

John was cagey about where exactly they were going and he’d thought that Tony was going to press him about the issue, but instead Tony had looked at him and nodded like he knew exactly where they were going. They’d gotten packed and headed out for a road trip as neither of them really wanted things to be over too quickly. When they finally arrived after 3 days of traveling and taking their time to learn more about what each other liked and wanted, John glanced over at Tony to see his reaction.

“So, it really exists.” Tony stared at the underground mountain facility not sure if he was really ready for this. 

“Yep.”

“So how do you know if this is your Stargate program or not?”

“We walk in and see if they recognize me.”

“Just like that?”

“Yep.”

“This is going to end poorly. I just know it.”

John just grinned and headed for the door. Tony shook his head and followed after him. Needless to say, Tony wasn’t overly impressed when they were taken to a windowless room and left there to cool their heels for a while. 

“If this is their normal reaction to you, I’d hate to see what they do to enemies.”

John waved dismissively. “It’s fine. They’re just running a background check on you. They’ll be back soon.”

Tony gave John a look. “You couldn’t have mentioned that this was like Hotel California, where once you checkin you can never leave?”

John chuckled. “Oh you can leave, you just have to sign some nondisclosures before they’ll let you, but I thought you’d like a chance to see where I work and maybe join me.”

Tony hummed thoughtfully, but didn’t say anything in response. After a couple of hours the door opened and a very grumpy general entered, “Why didn’t you tell me you were on Earth? Dr. Weir has been looking all over for you.”

John just shrugged. “I didn’t know I was until now and I had some things to deal with first. You know how it is.”

General O’Neill shot John a look. “You’re a real pain in my ass, you know that. Someone will be in to go through the spiel with him.” With a tilt of the head in Tony’s direction to indicate who he was talking about, General O’Neill left again. 

“Oh yeah, they love you.” Tony rolled his eyes.

“The general just gets grumpy because he always ends up doing more paperwork because of me. Don’t worry about it.”

Eventually someone else showed up with a truly massive pile of paperwork. As Tony leafed through it, he couldn’t help commenting, “I’m pretty sure I’m signing my life away if I sign these.”

“Pretty much, but there are definite perks.”

Tony exchanged a look with John and after reviewing the documents, he went ahead and signed them. That was about a month ago. Tony had been fast tracked, so that he could join John on Atlantis and he was finally going to see John again after a month of being on opposite sides of the universe and the fact that John actually worked in a different galaxy still blew Tony’s mind. 

He made sure to review the regulations about relationships particularly same sex ones and was glad to see that “Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell” was in effect. It wasn’t the best regulation, but at least they were allowed to have a relationship until the world stopped being stupid. John had hinted that things were a lot more lax in Atlantis and that they really only had to be careful when on Earth or around people entrenched in Earth thinking. 

It was only his first day on Atlantis, but Tony couldn’t wait. Things were good with John and he was looking forward to deepening the relationship. On top of that, he was actually appreciated by the Stargate program and it was an amazing change from the way he’d been treated at NCIS. Even if things didn’t work out with John, he would never regret joining the Stargate program, but he was pretty sure that the two of them would last forever.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Artwork for "Falling to Earth" by cutsycat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24340192) by [Banbury](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Banbury/pseuds/Banbury)




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